Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Get Over it Already! Stephen Colbert Still on Outs in Washington


A week and a half after the Correspondent’s Dinner during which Stephen Colbert roasted the president to his face; people in Washington seem to still hold a grudge. This time we’ve seen how C-Span feels about Colbert’s speech, as they ordered two internet video providers, You-Tube and I-FILM, to remove the video of the dinner.

Almost as shocking is the news that both sites agreed to take down the video, with the You-Tube spokeswoman saying that she thought that C-SPAN is publicly traded, and that since it is a private, non-profit organization, they have the right to pull the video. Still, the video was posted just after the dinner, and had approximately 3 million viewers in that time.

I must admit, I don’t see why C-SPAN would want the video pulled, and so I guess that really the president is still smarting over the speech, and demanded that agencies related to the government try to kill the videos out on the web.  But I have no proof of that.  All I know is that 11 days after Colbert’s speech at the Correspondent’s Dinner, it’s still a prime topic in many discussions.

Why has it lasted so long? Sure it was a great speech, and yes it took serious guts to say that speech with the President on the same podium, but to stay in the media’s eye for so long with so many issues taking place internationally?  Well, there’s an easy answer: because the Bush Administration isn’t letting it die.  

Sure, maybe they’re putting influence on others to stop this being seen, but that only adds fuel to the fire. Sorry, Pres, it was a good speech, and you got stung. It is time to pick yourself off the matt and stop dwelling on a speech that hit way too close to home for you.  There’s too much governing to do to focus on one time you came up short.

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Posted by Scottage at 11:37 AM / | |